Time for A Gut Check

By Shazad

When something feels wrong, people often say they have a gut feeling about it being so. The human gut is indeed like a second brain and where most of our immune system lives. A healthy digestive system means overall wellbeing. The opposite is also true so if things don’t feel right in the stomach for whatever reason, get things checked out. It could be an early warning sign that you need to make some small or big changes.

Time for everyone to listen to their gut on a regular basis. It knows a few things that the rest of the body can benefit from.

Dare to Dream Again

By Shazad

Remember how you used to dream about life and what you would become when you grew up? How many of you actually reached your dream job or dream life? What stopped you? Have you stopped dreaming altogether?

Revisit your past and what you said you wanted to accomplish. Now look at where you are at today and how things compare. Is it better, worse or the same as what you imagined your life would be like?

If it’s not where it should be for you - change it! Start dreaming again and write things down. Draw ideas and pictures of what it’s supposed to look like so it’s out of your head and in your hands to see every day. Make dreams come true by taking action on pursuing the dream that you have written down. If it’s important and still relevant to your life today, you’ll find a way to make it happen.

Will you dare to dream of the possibilities?

Are You Sailing Through Life?

sailboat.jpg

By Ahsan

“It’s not death that man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” Marcus Aurelius

May I ask you a question? Is life easy, or is it hard?

Please consider this one-word answer: NO.

So, if life is not easy and also not hard, are you sailing through life?

Your answer is likely to be sometimes I do, and at other times I don’t. However, my mate, as your Skipper, allow me to give you some lessons from the world of sailing so that you start to sail through life always!

I have had the fantastic privilege of reading Michael Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul. This book is a must-read. The author uses many analogies and among them is the analogy of living life with a sense of ease and sailing.

Think about this for a second. To sail, all you need is some wind, and off you go. Correct? 

Well, actually, as Michael Singer points out, you can have wind, but if your sail is not up, you go nowhere. The same goes if your sail is up, but there is no wind.

Furthermore, to keep your ship sailing to its destination, you need to not only adjust your sails, but you also need to do it just right. If your sail is too stiff and tight, a hard wind can tip your boat over. If, on the other hand, it is too loose, you won't catch the wind.

 And this becomes the analogy for life. You and I do not control life, nor do we control the wind and how hard it blows.

What we do control is how we adjust the sails. And this is exciting if you think about it. How fun is life when you understand that you can sail through it by controlling what you can.

If you want to sail through life, you need to lean into the wind and not resist the weather but rather work with it. Come rain or shine, blustering winds or terrifying tempests, your best action is to react appropriately and avoid getting all caught up in the moment. 

If your life, like mine and other people, is great one day and not so great the next, you will like this analogy and will probably not forget it soon. The more you share the sailing analogy, the more you will remember it and ingrain its beautiful message.

What’s more, I am going to share three action steps to make sailing through life a breeze. No pun intended!

Action Steps: 

1)    Life is full of stress. Accept it and if you like, in moments of stress, say to yourself that you are having fun. This will convert a moment of frustration into a feeling of exhilaration. Walk into the room, feeling your best.

2)    Keep a mindset of letting life happen and not resisting it or trying to make it go your way. Over time, you will feel more joy at allowing life to happen and playing your role as an active and willing participant.

3)    Stick with this idea of adjusting your sails as life gets windy. Going with flow and adjusting to the wind will lead to a more comfortable life even when it is hard one.

If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report “HOW TO DEVELOP  A DIAMOND HARD MINDSET.”

Education vs. Learning

By Shazad

You may have heard this before but it’s worth a review.  Education is not the same thing as learning.  The former is part of life and a requirement to advance in life. The latter is what makes life fulfilling and enables a person to excel in life.

Education is about attending a school or some program to achieve a desired outcome like a diploma, degree or a certificate.  Some of these may expire and others are good for the lifespan of the student who completed the education.  It’s important but it’s just a foundational skill we need to have to build a life on top of the many things school teaches us.

Learning is the act of formal and informal acquisition of knowledge which is applied.  When you learn something in an authentic way, you are not just listening to data or facts and making notes about something. You are actually processing the information and making sense of this. You are forming an opinion or point of view about the knowledge. It should inspire you to make some life changes based on the learning.  These can be very profound and will definitely have a lasting impression on the rest of your life starting with the day you learn something.

The most Awesome thing about Learning is that anyone can do it. You don’t need a formal classroom, tuition fees or even a world class professor.  You just need to be willing to observe, think and make decisions about the world around you. Every day is a learning opportunity because there is something going on every day in our home and the community. You just need to pay attention, learn how to look up relevant information in books or online and possess critical thinking skills to sort through what is relevant vs what is incorrect or unnecessary info.

Your formal education may have ended 20 years ago when you finished that Bachelors or Masters degree.  Your learning never stops as long as you are alive.  I personally believe my University experience was the training ground to lifelong learning.  I’m grateful I had an opportunity for formal education at 2 Universities and a Community College. I’m even more grateful for the passion I have learning many more things, correcting my thinking, and being a better person every year.  Never stop learning!

If you liked this post and know someone who is goal-oriented, please share it with them. Also, please join our Awesome Life email subscriber list by filling out the short form at www.awesomelifebook.com

Crisis As A Gift

By Shazad

We can take the current moment or any other time of disruption and confusion as a tragedy to be avoided or something else. I challenge you all to see it as a time of opportunity to help others get back to business, work, and life in general.  There are at least 3 tools to employ if you want to make the most of a crisis and I’ll share describe each of them below.

The first thing that should come to mind is Creativity. How can you do more with less? How can you get around the obstacles and challenges of the current moment? Make a list of all the new business opportunities or just simple ideas to solve problems that come to mind each day.

The second thing is your inner strength and Resolve to succeed despite the odds. How committed are you to what you believe is your mission at work, business, and life?  Write out your mission statement by hand on paper and review it when you start your day or a new project for work. Your actions will be tempered with your mission statement and you will likely find more inner strength each day to keep going.

The third tool related to both of the above is Personal Growth. This is a theme of Awesome Life and our overall mission with all like-minded followers of our content.  See the current moment as an opportunity to stretch and grow even more than you could if everything was ‘normal’ or running as expected in the work, at school, or in society in general.  Take the challenge to grow yourself by treating the crisis as a gym for your mind, body, and soul where you go each day to work out and develop the muscles you need for tomorrow and the next day.  Humans have always risen to the challenges of their times and become smarter, better, and more self-aware when they chose to grow through the circumstances rather than shrink and give up.

So, how are you going to use these tools to make sure you come out of 2020 a more creative, resilient, and stronger person than you ever thought you could be?  The time for Awesome is now!

If you liked this post and know someone who is goal-oriented, please share it with them. Also, please join our Awesome Life email subscriber list by filling out the short form at www.awesomelifebook.com

Define What Awesome Looks Like

By Shazad

We all want to have something awesome or be part of something awesome, but what does that mean?

The truth is that it’s going to be different for different people. It will likely change for you depending on your age and life circumstances. So what can you do if you really want more awesomeness in your life?

First and foremost, you need to define what that Awesome is for you in as much detail as possible.  Next, explain why it’s so Awesome for you with 3-5 qualifying statements. Third, what are you going to do about it now that you know what it is and why it matters to you? This is where you get to plan your next steps to make your definition of Awesome come into reality.

Now get out there and make Awesome happen for you!

Plant Some Seeds

By Shazad

It may not be the time to actually plant any fruit or vegetable seed right now but you can still plant seeds.  Ideas, good deeds and good works are all seeds you can start “planting” every day.

Now more than ever, we need more positivity and goodness in the world.  It starts with you and your habits. How you talk, think and act are the ‘seeds’ you are sowing every day. Making choices about how you behave with other people is like creating a garden for you and others to interact with.

The better you care for your garden and the things planted within it, the better your experience will be.  Overtime, you will need to water this garden and protect from harmful insects and disease.  The act of caring for your garden on a regular basis is the necessary daily work in order to have a healthy garden. In the same way, having a healthy life requires your daily work in your personal ‘garden’.  

So, what seeds are you planting today for a beautiful garden?

Can You Find Happiness Or Does Happiness Find You?

“Happiness is like trying to catch a  butterfly. That butterfly is not going to land on your shoulder and jump in your hand. But if you try to capture it with a butterfly net, you can do it!”⎯Bilal Ahmad

By Ahsan

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who was born into the most adverse time of history and who had no advantages of circumstance. He grew up amidst tough people and never received any help other than a kind word. Those who knew the little boy were certain that he would live a life of hardships and disappointments.

The reality of his life was adversity, but the outcome was prosperity. The little boy grew up to be among the most honoured of men and remarkably, the happiest too. 

What did he do to end up this way?

Did he find happiness, or did happiness find him?

The answer lies in how he approached his life and may inspire you to do the same.

In his mind, he instinctively knew that he was not to blame for his circumstances and that all he could do was try to improve them. So, he looked around to see what other successful and happy people did in times before, and he simply copied their recipes.

Another way of thinking he developed was that happiness is something a person creates as opposed to something you get when everything is going your way. He learned this from watching his neighbors that were even poorer than him but always happy with whatever they had.

Finally, in his life, many things occurred that were entirely outside his control, and he noticed that the “old normal” never came back. He saw that the people who thrived in the “new normal” were people who adapted, learned new skills and made themselves emotionally strong.

Action Steps:

  1. Have a purpose in life, a vision and a plan. Work on this a little bit every day of your life. You may like to also pray to your Creator for guidance, help, and resolve.

  2. Identify happy people and use their example and mindset for yourself. If they can see the silver lining, so can you.

  3. View change as the seed of new growth. Life is not in your control. The reason we have hardship, natural disasters and loss is so we might develop individually or even collectively.

  4. Ask yourself if you are taking responsibility for your happiness or expecting it to land on your shoulder.


You see, the notion that you will be happy when this happens or when a particular person does that is never going to work. 

Happiness is not an outcome that finds you! You find happiness by adopting the ways mentioned in this helpful article. Feel free to add a few ideas of your own to the list and keep them on your bathroom mirror to review every day!

If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report “HOW TO DEVELOP  A DIAMOND HARD MINDSET.”

What Mode Are You In?

By: Shazad

Quick! What are you doing right now and what ‘mode’ are you in? Could you answer this clearly and with just a few words? How about a single word? To answer this, let me define mode as the combination of thinking and behaving that you are engaged in. Another way to think of this is a pattern of behaviour or way of being.

So, what mode are you in?

To answer this, consider that we are always in some kind of mode at all times. We can be in multiple modes throughout the day whether we are working, playing, relaxing, or volunteering.  We are in a certain state of mind that can be identified.  Some of the many modes you could be are, the Caregiver, the Problem Solver, the Empathizer, the Thinker, the Marketer, the Preacher, and the Ruler.  If you examine your life and try to summarize most, if not all,  of your days, could you come up with just 3 modes that describe what you are doing at any given time?  I tried this and came up with Thinker, Teacher, Coach or TTC for short.  I believe I’m doing any one of these things whether I’m awake or asleep.  

Why bother doing this?

Knowing your own ‘operating mode’ helps you to align your actions, words, and thinking, as well as your schedule.  It creates clarity and gives you specific ways to look at a problem without necessarily having strict boundaries that hamper creativity.

A person who has too many modes often lacks focus and peace of mind. A person with too few modes may lack fulfillment and purpose in life.  Having just the right amount - about 3-5 modes as a maximum, means you will likely achieve all of your life goals in a meaningful way.
It’s ok to change modes as you change roles in life and generally get older.  Having more life experience, wisdom and self-awareness will definitely change how you think about life and what you consider important. Naturally, your modes will change through the refinement of ideas or completely changing your mind and having entirely new modes to be in.

So, give it some thought and be prepared to stop yourself at any point and ask, “What Mode am I in?”.

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I'm CURIOUS...What Would Steve Think?

By: Shazad

A friend of mine, who I met through some Executive Coaching classes at the office also has a very interesting podcast. It’s called the Natural Curiosity Project and Dr. Steven Shepard is the creator. Steve is an author, photographer, public speaker, and also a great storyteller. You can find out more about Steve here: www.shepardcomm.com

Within hours of being in Steve’s first training session, I was hooked on the way he explained things and the diverse life experiences he spoke about. I become seriously curious and wanted to know more about this man who I consider a true Polymath.  He inspired me to also be more curious about things and it started with being more curious about him. I was fascinated to learn of the many places Steve has been to and the various projects he’s worked on. He reminds me of Indiana Jones, David Attenborough, and Simon Sinek all rolled into one. This is perhaps why I find Steve to be so fascinating as a human being.

As children, we are very curious and it makes learning possible. At some point in our teens or after college, we stop being so curious about things and that’s a shame.  By ending our natural curiosity of things in adulthood, we nearly cut-off the ability to have creative thoughts, empathy towards another person’s point of view and, the ability to experience profound personal development.  In short, we stop living a full and rich life.

If you aren’t curious about people with different points of view, the origin of current customs and beliefs, or the reason people behave the way they do, you aren’t really getting the most out of life. If you want to understand the present and know what the future could look like, you need to be curious about people, history, geography, and nature. There are clues everywhere!

I meet a number of interesting people in life through work and my hobbies but not so many real polymaths who demonstrate a sincere wonder about the world and how it works. Anytime I’ve been feeling a little stuck or lacking in growth, I remember my friend Steve and ask myself, “What would Steve think about this issue?”.  It’s because of his vast experience, wisdom and practical advice that I often think of what his point of view may be on a topic. When I do, I am compelled to open my mind and let my curiosity flow.  This has often resulted in more compassion, understanding, and awareness. Aren’t you curious to know how much better your life could be?

Why Changing Your Mind is a Good Thing

By Shazad

“I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you want to make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change” 

Lyrics from Michael Jackson, “Man in the Mirror”

Children do it, World Leaders do it and everyone in between does it too.  Having a preference or opinion and then changing that at some later time is a perfectly natural thing and should be welcomed under the right circumstances. I’m going to explain that and let you decide if you have changed your mind about your opinions in the past and if you think that’s ok.

The first good reason to change one’s mind about something is new information. When we know better, we should do better and talk better as well as thinking better. We should never be stubbornly stuck on a path because we found our forefathers doing it or because everyone in our circle of friends is doing something. Get out of groupthink and become an independent Thought Leader when you have the best information.

The second good reason to change your mind is when the situation changes. For example, due to recent COVID19 pandemic, we should all be washing our hands more often and keeping some distance from people. This is precaution to prevent the spread of the virus and is a temporary condition. Other times, a change of action is more permanent due to a more dramatic  event such as Climate Change. In this case, we should all consider our impact on the environment in our lifetime and act to improve the planet instead of behaving as we did before we knew about Climate Change.

The third good reason to change is when you are no longer the same person as before.  When you are a teenager, your thoughts are different than when you are a mature adult with life experience.  The same goes for when you are married vs single or employed vs. Being in business for yourself.  There are so many times when we have a fundamental identity change due to time or the roles we have in life. It’s perfectly reasonable to have a mindset shift when your role changes. In fact, it should be required to change and develop yourself further.

So there you have it.  Changing your mind is neither bad, harmful, or something to be afraid of.  It’s proof of your growth and self-awareness developing in this journey called life. Make that change!

Here Is The Most Amazing Yet Most Dangerous Story Ever!

By Ahsan

No one could explain the reason why she started crying in the middle of the country fair. 

It was a beautiful sunny day. There was a rush of people all around, children laughing and families enjoying the rides and delicious treats like mango milkshakes, spicy corn on the cob, and funnel cakes, topped with strawberries and drizzled with maple syrup. 

Elanor was a beautiful young woman. She had big expressive eyes, curly hair, a radiant smile, and she came from a mixed heritage, half Italian and half Japanese. And she had a great personality on top of it all. From the outside in, you could say she was blessed: an excellent reputation as a person, family, friends, a decent career and interests, and hobbies that gave her meaning. 

But that was not the real story.

Elanor wished she could be someone else. Everyone else she knew enjoyed their lives and liked themselves. She could not bear the emotion of feeling inadequate and not being lovable. The life she lived was mostly one of feeling anxious and awkward with fleeting moments of temporary happiness. 

In her mind, she needed to get away from the people whom she felt never really valued her or truly loved her. 

To her friends, neighbours, and coworkers, she was a polite but timid person. But, in reality, Elanor could never get over how her friends ditched her in the first week of grade 9 and started their campaign of mental abuse. They convinced her that she was weird and that no one could ever like a person like her. And so, Elanor, for obvious reasons, as you will soon see, became the “shy” person that the rest of the world knew her as. 

Perhaps, you can see what Elanor could not see. 

She was the victim of her high school bullies. Emotionally, she was fragile. This much is true. But most importantly, she told herself the story that they wanted her to believe for 14 years, day after day. Had Elanor rewritten the event of her grade 9 life in the second week of grade 9, she would have lived a very different existence. 

Unknown to the vast majority of people, our lives are influenced not by events or people but rather something else.  The challenge we all face is that our lives are ruled by the story or stories we keep telling ourselves and the meaning we attach to them. But why is this so?

Let’s try something together: stay silent and stop reading this article for one minute.

Are you back?

What were you thinking during that one minute? I doubt it was nothing.

We all have a voice in our head that speaks to us non-stop from the time we open our eyes to the time we drift off to sleep. That voice is your constant companion; you cannot turn it off. It keeps talking to you and seems to have a mind of its own (LOL). However, you should understand that 80% of the thoughts it generates are mostly negative or meaningless, and the other 95% of it is predominantly random. 

Unfortunately, people have what is called a “past.” Usually, in childhood or adolescence, something terrible happens that leaves a life-long effect on how we live the rest of our lives. That past becomes our present. By retelling specific stories and the meaning you attach to them, your life can either become heaven or hell. 

These stories rule our life and reinforce their shadow on how we live our life, good or bad.

Ask yourself if this is true for you?

If it is, you will never break free of the story’s grip on your life unless you do something about it.

The positive stories we tell ourselves can lead to amazing things.

The negative stories may become outright dangerous.

Perhaps, all Elanor needed to do was say to herself that these girls are trying to manipulate me and rather than believe them, I will move on and make new friends even if I only find one who genuinely likes me for who I am. In this way, she would have given her mind a new meaning to the event and shrugged off the whole trauma she felt in that first week of grade 9. 

Here is what you might like to do. 

Try to rewrite the meaning of the story that is ruling your life. 

Live the life you truly deserve. Not the one you are stuck within the present moment.

Actions: 

  1. Become aware of the voice that talks to you all day long and don’t believe at least 80% of it because most of that dialogue is nonsense.

  2. Sit with a journal and write down the stories that you are telling yourself that you know are not preventing you from living in peace and joy.  Identify the story that helps others to live joyfully and consider why can’t you also be that way?

  3. Resolve to rewrite the story, especially the meaning of what you attach to it. Get creative and find positives, even if there are traumas and tragedies in the story. What happened 35 years ago, however bad, is now over. It is the past. This is a fact.

  4. Repeat that new meaning every day so that you allow your mind to heal and move on. People mostly endure life; very few of us are truly living.

  5. Remember that just like taking a shower every day, so that you can refresh your body, you need to also take control of your mind and the stories and their meanings daily. This is how to enjoy the fragrance of life.

If you liked this article and know someone who is goal-oriented and should read this, please share it on your social media and suggest they visit www.awesomelifebook.com to subscribe to our email list. As a bonus, they will get our free report “HOW TO DEVELOP  A DIAMOND HARD MINDSET.”

Long Term Thinking

By Shazad

Many people in this world are narrowly focused on what happens today or at most, tomorrow. It’s good to live in the present but we must also be thinking beyond the immediate. There needs to be some planning for what happens after the new job starts, the married life begins or that business launches. So much emphasis is on the interview preparation for a job, the elaborate planning of a wedding function, or the initial stock offering of a new company. We should spend at least as much time on what happens in the many months and years that follow these grand events in life. Being aware and proactive about our lives in the long term helps to keep momentum going and makes life more fulfilling.

We all need to live in the moment each day while also thinking how to make every tomorrow joyful and successful. We do this by fuelling our future life with all the gratitude, love, patience and resilience we can muster.

Create the New Awesome

By Shazad

Many of you are probably wanting things to get back to “normal'“ now. You are tired of lockdown, limited social gatherings and the inability to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it. I hear you!

Whenever you go through a crisis or difficult situation, don’t expect things to go back to the way they were. Many describe their daily routine as the ‘normal’. They often don’t like their daily routine and want to escape to some other way of living…until things change drastically and then those same people want their old life back. Ironic, isn’t it?

Instead of trying to go back in time (which you can’t) and then wishing life would be different, realize that this is your opportunity to be different - right now! Make an Awesome new routine for yourself despite your restrictions and the weirdness of your daily routines with the work from home, study from home, play at home and all the other things you have to do from home. Make a game out of these times and play to win! Be thankful for all the things you still have that you can’t live without. Make a plan to preserve some of those Awesome moments and routines and get rid of the nonsense and wasteful things in your life instead of carrying them forward. Optimize your family and friends time and become more people focused instead of wanting more ‘things’ to impress people you don’t even know online. By now, you should have realized who your real friends are and who you want to spend more time with so reduce time with everyone else.

Let’s come out of this crisis with strength, courage and a new way of living that is the best we have ever experienced! The New Awesome is waiting for you!